Nocturne
by wulfenheim
Summary: A strange new power awakens within Issei after a childhood accident. But he who holds the powers of darkness, is destined to become one with the dark. Will Issei fall down a dark path or will he rise above it? Slow Buildup and, despite of what the the intro may hint at, pairings undecided. Dark Story


Nocturne:

Prologue: The Nightmare from Umbra

"_ISSEI!" A faint voice screamed out. The voice seemed familiar to Issei, but he did not recognize it fully. _

"_CALL AN AMBULANCE!" Issei heard the voice call out again, but it was so faint that he could barely hear it even if the source was right beside him. _

_It was at this time Issei noticed that his body felt weightless. He couldn't feel his arms, legs or fingers. There was nothing to feel. It was as if he was just a floating pair of eyeballs, but he couldn't feel those either._

'…_.what's going on?...' He asked himself. Surely, any person in a similar or same situation would ask the same thing. _

"_PLEASE JUST MAKE SURE HE'S SAFE!" Now there's that voice again, but it had gotten fainter and what could be deciphered as sound was lost in the echoes it had created. _

'…_..where am I?' He asked himself. This time, he'd noticed that there was only darkness in all directions he'd look at. In the distance, Issei could see two orbs floating beside each other. The orbs started moving towards him until a faint silhouette of humanoid was recognizable. How could it not be? It was the only thing Issei could see in this endless darkness._

'…_.__**let there be darkness…..**__' Issei heard another voice. This one wasn't faint or soft like the last one. This voice sounded dark, sickly and evil beyond imagining. _

'…_.who's there?' Issei tried to say, but realized that he couldn't even feel his own mouth. So he ended up screaming it in his mind. _

'…_.__**there is only darkness here**__…' The voice responded, but it certainly wasn't an answer to this question._

'…_.what are you talking about?' Issei asked, but was sure that he would get an answer to a question he did not ask in return._

'…_.__**darkness**__…' It responded._

'…_darkness?...what darkness?' Issei asked, curious as to what the voice was speaking of._

'_...__**the time has not come yet**__….' The voice said. '….__**darkness…..darkness….DARKNESS!'**_

…..

When Issei opened his eyes, he was greeted by an array of lights. He also noticed that he was covered in bandages and was unable to move. It was only then that he realized that he was in a hospital, and the lights were coming from the outside and was reflected by a mirror right beside him. He tried moving his head, but found that he couldn't. Apparently there was a neck-bracer attached to his person which prevented him from moving.

"Oh look, he's awake" He heard an unfamiliar voice say. Then he heard the faint sound of footsteps approaching the bed he was lying down upon.

"Issei?" He heard his mother's voice say. He could not see her with the current position of his head and neck, but he'd recognized his mother's voice anywhere. He then saw his mother's face look briefly at his own from his peripheral vision and smile a bit.

"..what…..h…happened?" Issei asked, silently thankful that his mouth wasn't broken and that he wasn't missing any teeth. "…W….what….am..I…..doing…here?"

"Honey….you were in a car accident with you father….." He heard his mother say. Issei also noticed that his mother's tone instantly became sad.

"…w…where's….d..dad?" Issei asked, almost without emotion. But he was shaking inside. Shaking out of fear that his father might had not survived.

"He's in intensive care right now honey-"His mother's voice was suddenly cut off, along with every other sound that he had previously heard.

"…**darkness…." **There was no mistaking it. This was the same voice he'd heard in his dream just moments ago. "…**the light will soon wither…..and there shall only be darkness…**"

'…what are you talking about?..' Issei thought. '...and am I hearing voices now?...wait…..I was in an accident so that would probably entail that I've hit my head somehow….so that means I'm probably going crazy…'

'….**soon….you will witness total darkness….**" The voice said. Issei could hear a faint laughter as it disappeared, and all the sounds returned once again.

"-Issei?" He heard his mother's voice. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah…..I'm…..fine…"

2 YEARS LATER:

It had been 2 years since the accident that changed his life without him actually knowing it. After he and his father were released from the hospital, the Hyoudo household decided to move to a less urban area in the country, but still have some modernization. They quickly located a town with an apparently high-class school named Kuoh Academy and moved there. Issei also noticed that he wasn't hearing that creepy voice anymore, and that was good.

That was 2 years ago, and today was Issei's first day of being a 3rd year student of Kuoh Academy. He was about to start brushing his teeth when all sound disappeared again.

'Oh no' Were Issei's only thoughts as the last sound died away and he could hear absolutely nothing.

'…**soon**…'

Just like that, the sounds returned once again.

'Just what the hell is going on?' He asked himself, silently hoping that he was going crazy and that there was no one talking to him.

"Issei! Hurry up, it's you're first day of school today and I don't want you to be late" He heard his mother yell from the first floor of their house.

"Okay mom!" Issei yelled as he hurriedly brushed his teeth and rushed down to the living room. In his rushing, he failed to notice the faint black smoke that emerged from his fingernails and disappeared after few seconds. During that span of time, his fingernails became total darkness. It was as if they were holes in the fabric of time and space itself. No light reflected off it, in fact it seemed to be absorbing light. But it disappeared as quickly as it came.

"There you are!" His mother said when she saw Issei walking down the stairs. She then grabbed a paper bag next to her and gave it to her son. "Here's your lunch and be sure to list down whatever requirements we need to buy"

"Alright mom" Issei said with a smile as he exit their house and started walking towards school.

Two years ago, he and his mother actually had an argument about him walking to school or just being taken their by his father. Issei won the argument by saying that walking is much healthier than riding a car.

SOMEWHERE:

"Your objective is to observe him only" A figure said. Most of his face and physical features were obscured by darkness but it could clearly be made out that he was a male. "Under no circumstance will you hurt him or show your supernatural side, are we clear Raynare?"

"Yes Azazel-sama!" The other figure, now known as Raynare, said in reply.

"How you'll do this depends entirely on you" Azazel added. "Now you may go"

Raynare nodded and walked towards the exit door, she opened it and walked out. Outside, was a long-haired man waiting for her. Beside him was a limousine. He smiled at her and motioned for her to enter the car. Raynare nodded and went in, with the man following shortly after.

"What was the mission he'd given you?" The man asked.

"I'm supposed to scout out a boy with a dormant sacred gear and ascertain if he's a threat or not" Raynare answered.

"…hmmm….just kill him and be done with it.." The man said.

"But Azazel-sama specifically ordered me to simply observe!" She said, louder than her usual tone.

"Remember who your loyalty belongs to" The man said, agitated.

WITH ISSEI:

Issei had been schooling in Kuoh academy for a year now and he was quite used to arriving so early that there were virtually no students yet when he arrives. In fact, sometimes the school gates would still be closed when he arrives after the long trek from his house. What he'd normally do was just sit down on the nearby benches until the bells would ring.

A year ago, Issei had befriended a girl named Souna Shitori. The cause for this was because she also tends to arrive early, and go to the same bench where Issei normally sits in. At first it became a contest as to who would get the bench, then it stopped and they started talking about random things while sitting down, until their relationship grew to a point that they would normally eat lunch together in the rooftop or in a table that was far from the other tables in the canteen.

This time though, Souna didn't arrive in the usual time that she normally would. But then Issei just shrugged and hung his head back to relax a bit.

Issei never noticed the sounds disappearing again.

'..**awaken**….** soon**…'

'What the hell is going on in my head?'

"Issei?" Issei's thoughts were disturbed when he heard a familiar voice to his left. He looked to that direction and saw his sort-of-friend standing there with her left hand carrying a book. "Are you alright?"

"Ugh…..huh? Oh…..I'm alright! Just a little sleepy is all" Issei said with a lazy smile, which reverted back to its usual monotone after a second. "…It's good to see you after all this time"

"…yeah…good to see you too Issei…" Souna said in reply. She then sat down beside him and started reading whatever book she was holding a while ago.

Issei went back to his relaxed position and hoped that the damn voice would haunt him again.

'..**darkness…**' He heard the voice say again. In that exact moment, Souna suddenly felt uneasy, almost paranoid about something. It was the same feeling you get when you're afraid but aren't sure of what you're afraid of.

'W-what is this feeling?' She thought. It was the most horrible thing she'd ever felt in her entire life. She felt sickened to her very core. Disturbed, afraid and paranoid over something that she doesn't know. "I….I should go"

Souna then stood up and ran towards the nearest comfort room. Inside, she went to the nearest toilet and emptied out the contents of her stomach by vomiting in it. After doing so, the girl slumped on the nearby wall and started breathing heavily, almost hyperventilating.

'Compose yourself!' She mentally yelled, but no matter how hard she tried she still couldn't get rid of her feeling of dread. No matter how much her logical mind told her that she shouldn't be afraid of something that she didn't know, heard of, or even seen, she was still very much afraid. Her breathing finally slowed down and she regained composure after 3 minutes. The feeling of fear was still there, but at least it wasn't as strong as before.

WITH ISSEI:

'What's up with her all of a sudden?' He asked himself, but then it really wasn't his business since he wasn't that close to Souna anyway. A few minutes later, the school bell rung. A few more minutes, and the school was now filled with people.

Issei stood up and noticed a few girls looking at him and giggling about something. Being the uncaring and uninterested person that he was, he just shrugged and began walking to his designated class.

The moment he stepped on the first step on the stairs, all sounds vanished and Issei knew of this condition all too well.

'…**prepare…..**'

Just with that, all sounds came back as quickly as it disappeared. Issei actually stopped in his tracks just to recover from that. Although he was getting quite used to it, he could never really get rid of the dreadful feeling that came with it.

'Just ignore and maybe it will go away eventually' Were his thoughts as he continued walking up the stairs. '..Or maybe not'

The first day of school began like it always did. Everyone would introduce themselves, including the teachers, and then a brief introduction about their current topic, which was the most important part anyway. Issei wasn't really new in the school so he didn't have to go into any detail about himself during the introduction, just his full name.

"Psst! Hey!" A voice called out to him from directly to his right. Issei turned his head to that direction and raised his right eyebrow at the person who called his attention.

It was a girl. Dark long hair, creamy white skin and body that most dudes would die for was the right description for this girl. Unfortunately for said girl, Issei was not like most dudes.

"What do you want?" Issei asked, his tone sounded bored and uncaring.

"I'm Emma, what's your name?" The girl said as she extended her right hand for a handshake with one of the 'dreamiest' teens in the school, she did so with a cute smile that would've melted anyone's heart.

Although Issei DOES have a heart, he just doesn't care.

"I'm Issei" Issei said through a fake smile as he extended his right hand for the handshake that the girl seemed to so eager to have. 'I hope she doesn't disturb me anymore'

"It's my first day today in Kuoh academy, and I want to make lots of friends!" Emma suddenly said, startling Issei. "Will you be my friend?"

'It's a high possibility that she will shut up if I say yes….so yes it is' Issei thought. "….sure, but can you not disturb me anymore? We're still in the classroom after all"

"Oh…yeah….sorry" Emma said in reply, giggling a bit as she went back to writing her notes about the topic.

'It worked!'

What Issei didn't know, was that there was a figure who was glaring at Emma from behind the class. A certain dark-haired girl who was sent to monitor Issei.

'An angel…..here!?' She asked herself. She immediately stopped when Emma whipped her head back and glanced at her as a warning. 'Damn it! She knows!'

Her thoughts were interrupted when a dark-haired spectacled woman entered the room.

"Emma Roserain and Amano Yuuma, please proceed to the student council office" She stated sternly, and Issei clearly saw that the two girls who were mentioned gulped in unison.

'What did those two do to get in trouble?' Issei asked himself, but then reminded himself a second later that he did not really care at all. '…..hmmm…..do I really give a shit in the first place?...nope'

'…**..Tread carefully…..'**

The momentary absence of any other sound caused Issei to pause for a bit before going back to writing his notes.

AFTERNOON:

Issei was currently walking home after a slow day in school. Lunch played out like it always had, he would sit then Souna would sit beside him a few minutes later and they'd start eating together while talking about random things.

Issei's current goal was just to go home, eat and sleep….maybe bathe. But then a random thought struck his mind.

'Maybe I should visit the park and enjoy watching the Cherry blossoms?' He asked himself. '….yeah, that'd be quite relaxing'

IN THE PARK:

At first, Issei thought it was strange that there was no one else in the park but him, but then he shrugged since he didn't actually come here to see other people, just the cherry blossoms.

Issei smiled as he watched the beautiful pink petals fall down and glide with the wind in front of him. He extended his hand out and caught a few of them. This was actually on of the rarest moments when he would smile wholeheartedly since most of his smiles were fake.

Issei continued staring at the few petals on his palm, until a sudden sharp pain erupted on his chest and the petals were covered in red stains.

'….**It begins…**'

…

Raynare sneered when she saw the brat all unto the ground. Her work had to be cut short simply because the devils noticed her.

'Damn it!' She cursed. 'But at least the mission is done and the brat is dead'

"…..**Not even close…**"

At that exact moment, all her senses were suddenly non-existent. She couldn't see, hear, feel, smell, taste or even detect others around her. It was total darkness, and she was powerless against it.

She had no idea what was happening. In fact, she couldn't even hear herself think anymore. There was nothing on her visual spectrum, nothing but darkness. She couldn't run, she didn't even know if she still had legs at all.

Raynare was so utterly terrified that she did the only thing that she could possible do in this situation.

She screamed.

But then she couldn't hear her own voice, only the faint sound of a dark and sickly laughter coming from all directions.

'…..**Are you my nightmare or am I yours?**'

…..

That night, many citizens heard the pained and terrified screams of a girl. Police officers were sent to investigate the park, where the sound reportedly originated, but found no trace of anything.


End file.
